Memories of Alcauld
by Kasia Misou
Summary: Following Ultimecia's defeat, Squall returns to the Garden - and everything seems nice and rosy from there. But something strange is happening to Rinoa, to himself, and to a seemingly insignificant cadet. And it all began on the Alcauld Plains.
1. Prelude

Memories of Alcauld Prelude  
  
It was a freezing cold winter night, as cold as the nasty Trabian winters that raged up north. An icy gale cut sharply through the young woman's outer layer of furs and into her skin. In her arms was a tiny bundle of cloths and she wrapped her arms protectively around it, clutching at the bundle as though the wind would use its frosty fingers to prise her precious cargo out of her arms.  
  
The wind continued its relentless assault, striking indiscriminately at rock or human. The young woman stumbled head-first into the snow in exhaustion, but still she held on tightly to the cloth bundle. Her face was scrunched up in grim determination as she struggled to her feet and waded through the knee-deep snow until she finally stopped.  
  
Before her was a huge circular building with ivory and blue walls, and it stood sturdy in the swirling snow storm that seemed to grow in velocity and ferocity with every passing minute. Standing at the snow-capped metal gates was another young woman – she had long black hair that hung down to her waist, a porcelain-like complexion and the strangest amber eyes that seemed to glow with a golden light.  
  
The amber-eyed young woman took the other woman's hand in her own and led her through the gates into the little room. A fire burned brightly in the brick fireplace, spreading its comforting warmth and diffused orange light all around the room.  
  
"Ah, Raine. I knew you were coming." The tawny-eyed woman greeted her shivering friend as she shut the gates and then the door behind her, keeping the chilly draft out. "What could be the matter?"  
  
Moving closer to the fire, the woman named Raine shook the snow out of her ash-blond hair and watched as the stray snowdrops that flew onto the metal grille of the fireplace melted into minute puddles that seemed to shift in shape before her very eyes. She blinked and turned her striking emerald eyes onto her friend's amber ones.  
  
"Do you see that, Edea? The water speaks again – it shifts its shape to speak again." She whispered and bit her lip, uncertainty flitting across her face.  
  
"That could very well mean nothing." Edea said as she slowly turned her eyes away from the luminous green of Raine's eyes and let them fall onto the melted snow on the grille. "You worry too much, Raine."  
  
"No, listen to me." There was a slight urgency that rose in her voice now. "I know very well what the shifting waters mean, and I am deeply troubled by what I can see in the future. I need your help."  
  
Edea paced the length of the room, her brow creased in a frown. All was quiet save the crackling of the fire and the two women's breaths. The small wooden door in the corner suddenly creaked open and a small boy of about five poked his head through quietly.  
  
She stopped her troubled pacing and looked up. The boy tilted his head to one side and his brown hair glinted golden.  
  
"Come here, Squall." Edea sighed and beckoned the boy to her side.  
  
The boy named Squall padded softly across the room and fitted his tiny hand into Edea's own hand. He looked up at Edea and then turned to look at Raine by the fireplace in silence, his grey-blue eyes taking in the strangeness of the scene quietly.  
  
"Yes, I do know what the shifting waters mean myself. But are you sure?"  
  
Raine looked up from the dancing flames and nodded, the fire lending an ethereal glow to her already incandescent emerald eyes and making her seem quite otherworldly. All this while, the cloth bundle was wrapped tightly in her arms, but now, it moved slightly and let out a tiny whimper.  
  
"I know, Edea. I know what will happen. I'll need your help when it does happen, which will not be very far into the future." Raine unwrapped the cloths to reveal an infant, a little girl sleeping peacefully.  
  
"Please, take my daughter in when it happens. I do not know exactly when and how, but you will know when it takes place."  
  
Edea studied the sleeping child's face intently – she was a beautiful girl, with delicate features that looked neither distinctly Anglo-Saxon nor entirely Asian; her skin was creamy white in colour and her gently curling hair was a mixture of white-blond and deep brown; a very unusual-looking child but beautiful nonetheless.  
  
"Of course, Raine. You needn't worry about the child. And her name?"  
  
"Her name is Marie."  
  
At this, a clap of thunder sounded and the sleeping child awoke with a sharp cry. As she opened her eyes, Edea saw that like the rest of the child, the eyes were strangely beautiful; a light brown flecked with aquamarine and sapphire. Marie wailed long and loud and Raine stroked her daughter's head soothingly.  
  
Unknown to both women, another pair of eyes was studying the swaddled infant as she cried heartily. The boy Squall stood by Edea all this while, looking at Marie quietly as his bright slate-blue eyes drank in the details of the scene. He was particularly fascinated by the peculiarly coloured baby, although he did not know why.  
  
Raine slowly got to her feet and wrapped her child up again in the cloths.  
  
"We must be going." She walked to the main door and held the now-quiet child closer to her chest. "Remember, Edea. Remember Marie."  
  
She pushed the wooden door open slightly and immediately, the vicious wind ripped at her furs, threatening to pull them all off. Squall clutched on to Edea's hand tightly as the glacial wind whipped his silken brown hair across his eyes.  
  
"Yes, Raine. I promise. Now go, and take the best care." Edea smiled comfortingly at her friend. "Be strong always."  
  
"Good-bye, Edea. Thank you." And the door slammed shut behind her, the last image Edea saw of her friend Raine was that of a slim figure and her child struggling in the torrential snowstorm that seemed to grow in rage.  
  
"Aunt Edea, who was that woman and that child?" Squall spoke for the first time as he tugged at Edea's hand. "Why did that baby look so odd?"  
  
Edea knelt down and brushed his silky golden brown hair out of his eyes. She stroked his forehead and then turned her amber eyes to look out of the window into the endless sea of white outside.  
  
"She is a very special lady, Squall, and that baby is a very special baby."  
  
He nodded his head but didn't seem satisfied with Edea's answer. Nevertheless, he let go of her hand quietly and slipped back through the door where he came from. As Edea stood there alone and watched the crackling fire die out to become faint, glowing embers, thoughts swirled about in her own head, a snowstorm raging in her mind.  
  
Outside, the storm became fiercer and yet more snow fell out of the sky and made the snow on the ground deeper. As the storm swirled about in Edea's mind, so too did the storm whirl outside. Outside, on the Alcauld Plains, the storm seemed that it would never stop.  
  
NB: My stab at trying to create a couple of new characters to join the much- loved FF8 cast. New characters can either make or break a story, so we'll see how this one goes! :) crosses her fingers- Please read and review – every single comment will be GREATLY appreciated! Oh, and for those who wanna check this out – http:www.kasia-misou.blogspot.com. This will probably be updated more frequently, and unfinalized chapters can also be found here sometimes. Thankyou! 


	2. Chapter 1

Memories of Alcauld Chapter 1  
  
Rinoa Heartilly sat on the fine golden sand that marked the Alcauld coastline, the cool morning breeze caressing the strands of her dark brown hair. Balamb Garden in all its high-tech glory stood in the distance, a circular-shaped building with the oddly-shaped blue and white triangular metal pieces attached to the top, the extensions that gave the Garden its flight capability.  
  
The sun had not risen fully yet, and it was still slightly dark. Rinoa closed her eyes and tasted the salty sea breeze on her tongue, she let the gentle sound of waves rolling up on the sandy shore envelop her entire being. She was trying to forget what she'd seen last night; the sight of the cool water gushing out from the faucet as she'd washed her face before going to bed changing its shape to deliver its warning had shaken her.  
  
Some Sorceresses had the ability of reading the shifting shape of the waters, the waters that would deliver glimpses of the future as it took other shapes. Rinoa could read the water signs, she'd just found out last night. It was a mark of being a direct descendent of the great Hyne Herself, for Hyne was an excellent Water-Seer and could foretell a great amount of the future with every shifting of the water.  
  
What Rinoa saw was indeed very disturbing; she had seen a new evil rising in the future, but that wasn't what troubled her. It was the fact that Rinoa saw herself as one of the causes that gave rise to that malevolence that made her so fearful. She sighed deeply and opened her eyes. By now, the sun's glow had spread across most of the sky and it was tinged with pale oranges and golds. How could she possibly be the root of the new evil? How could she, when she was perfectly happy with everything right now, when there were so many things she loved in life presently?  
  
A canary somewhere behind her in the fields sung its lilting song. She sighed again. She simply couldn't come to terms with what she'd seen in the shifting waters last night. Perhaps she'd been tired, and her eyes had played a trick on her? Perhaps she Saw and interpreted what she's Seen wrongly?  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, Rinoa detected a slim figure moving through the fields. Turning her head, she saw that it was a young woman of about sixteen or seventeen years of age with long hair that fell to her waist in loose waves. Even from where she was sitting, Rinoa could make out the distinct colours of the young woman's hair; it was a blend of light blond and a deep, golden brown – Rinoa had never seen hair like that before. The young woman was heading down the path to the Garden, a smile on her lips an indication that she liked mornings out on the Alcauld Plains as much as Rinoa did.  
  
It was time to return to the Garden too. Rinoa pushed herself up from the soft sand and started to walk towards the meadow. Her footprints that were left in the sand were quickly concealed by the sand the wind had blown over even as she walked and made new depressions. If she'd studied her footprints disappearing just as she made them, she'd have felt even more uneasy – as if traces of her old self were being wiped away as the imminent malice brewed in the horizon. But as it was, the footprints went unnoticed, which was just as well, for it meant one less worry preying on her already saturated mind.  
  
Marie Lee Trelin let herself quietly into the darkened room, shutting the smooth oak door behind her carefully. Her room-mate and best friend, Oriel Ashcroft was still deep in sleep, her goose-down duvet pulled up to her chin, her face peaceful. Long strawberry blond hair framed her sleeping face and fanned out behind her on the pillow. She let out a gentle snore.  
  
Tip-toeing past Oriel's bed and to her own further inside the room, Marie picked her way through assorted clothing articles that seem to cover every square inch of the lavender carpet beneath. She spotted the white halter- necked top that had been missing for the past week peeking out from beneath one of Oriel's sequinned tank tops and she shook her head with a wry smile on her lips. She should have known that Oriel had borrowed her top when it first went missing – Oriel was always doing scatter-brained things like that.  
  
The large silver clock that hung on the far wall read 7 o'clock. It was still early; her cadet trial with Instructor Trepe wasn't until 1000 hours. Marie flung herself down onto her rose-coloured bedspread and lay on her back, looking up at the ceiling. It was going to be a long day, an important one. As she let her mind wander off to the fields she had sat in earlier in the morning, she closed her eyes and reveled in the stillness of the room.  
  
Marie walked silently through tall wild grasses, patches of colour that indicated sprays of wildflowers dotting the verdant landscape in her mind. She visualized the splashes of colour in the sky as the pale morning sun rose – vivacious hues of reds, golds, vermillions and pinks. That morning as she'd roamed the Alcauld Plains – the fields outside Balamb – she'd been trying to calm herself down at the thought of the trial that awaited her. The trial that was to determine if she got to sit for the SeeD examinations.  
  
Everyone had been talking about Commander Leonhart's own trial in the Fire Cavern that had taken place a mere 3 years ago, when the Instructor that accompanied him had been Instructor Trepe too. He had obtained a Guardian Force in the Cavern and had scored nearly full marks in it. Commander Leonhart was legendary in the halls of Balamb as part of the party that had defeated the sorceress from the future, Ultimecia, and restored peace to their world. Recently however, Marie had heard talk of Commander Leonhart's own girlfriend – the Sorceress Rinoa – leaving him. She had no idea about the truth in these bits of gossip the female cadets frequently shared with each other concerning the gorgeous Commander, but it was true that he had been looking particularly moody in recent times.  
  
She stifled a snort as she thought of her classmates' crushes on the Commander. He was the object of many cadets' talk during the lunch hours and the cause of many girls' flaming red faces whenever he walked past in the corridors. Marie grudgingly admitted to herself that the Commander was rather good-looking, with silky golden brown hair that sometimes covered his smoky, grey-blue eyes and fine features that were delicate yet distinctly masculine at the same time. But he was always so cold and distant; she simply couldn't see how the Sorceress Rinoa had managed to tolerate his sullenness for as long as she did.  
  
As Oriel let out another gentle snore, Marie rolled over to her stomach and looked at her best friend affectionately. Oriel had been her closest friend for as long as she could remember, since she started her training as a cadet here in the Garden. Marie had always thought of herself as an ugly child. She had strangely coloured hair and eyes, and her features slightly odd as well.  
  
Her light-blond and mahogany hair fell to her back in loose waves this morning, her almond-shaped light brown eyes that were speckled with aquamarine and sapphire flecks bright and fresh from the balmy breeze earlier this morning up on the Plains. As a child, she'd often despaired over her striking appearance, and even now as a young woman of seventeen, she was close to despair over her unusual looks.  
  
"I wish I looked more like you, Oriel." Marie had said once to her best friend wistfully while playing with her long, silky strawberry blond hair that fell straight down her back. "You've got such pretty hair and eyes."  
  
Oriel had looked at her with disbelief in her brilliant amethyst eyes and told her very sternly, "Oh, Marie, don't be silly! You've got the most amazing eyes yourself, and – and you're gorgeous!"  
  
Still, Marie frequently thought that she stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of girls with perfect faces and hair that was just one colour.  
  
As Marie thought of Oriel, she remembered what she'd been meaning to tell her friend these past few weeks. It was about the Commander – she desperately hoped her usually sensible friend hadn't completely lost her wits and joined the I-Love-You-Squall fan-club. Oriel had been behaving strangely recently; she always seemed to be looking out for someone and though she did not blush whenever the topic of Squall was broached among their classmates, her ears turned a characteristic crimson – a tell-tale sign of Oriel's embarrassment that Marie had known about ever since they were both children.  
  
Yet another gentle snore came from Oriel's side of the room, which seemed to be an invitation for Marie to rest her head on her pillow, to close her eyes and go to sleep too. She set her alarm to ring at 9 o'clock and she gave in to her desire to shut her mind out from the bustling world around, sinking into a sweet, dreamless sleep.  
  
"Tell me again why I have to supervise this cadet's trial." Squall Leonhart muttered grumpily under his breath.  
  
Quistis Trepe looked apologetically at him and sighed. She picked up the spoon from the dish and stirred her coffee slowly before sipping carefully at it. The Cafeteria was usually deserted this early in the morning save the occasional cadet who woke up early to do their last minute unfinished work before the first class started, and this was how Quistis liked it.  
  
"I'm really sorry Squall, but there simply isn't anyone else to do it. Oh, but if it's such trouble, I suppose we could just get Seifer to –"  
  
"What? No, it's all right, I'll do it. I – um – it isn't a trouble at all." Squall scowled upon hearing his rival's name. "Seifer would probably screw up the poor kid's trial anyway."  
  
Quistis stifled a giggle and a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She knew that Squall would never let Seifer Almasy do anything in his place.  
  
"Are you sure? Well, thank you then." She finished the last bit of coffee in her mug before setting it down and standing up.  
  
Squall emptied the contents of his cup down his throat and stood up too.  
  
"Yeah. But you owe me, Trepe." He said with the faintest traces of a smile on his lips. "You owe me big time!"  
  
"Well... Whatever." Quistis retorted with a snort. "Remember, this morning at 1000 hours at the entrance. You're meeting a cadet by the name of Marie Lee Trelin. Now don't you scare her too much, yeah?"  
  
And with that, Quistis was on her way down the hallway and disappeared at the corner, leaving Squall standing by himself and trying to commit to memory the time and cadet name Quistis had just told him.  
  
"What was her name again? Marie Lee Trelin. Right. Got it. Why must these students have such difficult names to remember?" He mumbled in mild irritation and sighed. "...Whatever." 


End file.
